Lessen the scope of lesson 08 #26

Skillmon · 2020-05-19T18:06:45Z

This pull request will reduce the amount of information in lesson-08 and instead move more to more-08. It is a result from the discussion here.

davidcarlisle · 2020-05-19T20:48:53Z

en/lesson-08.md

+You can also use `\multicolumn` on a single cell to prevent whatever you defined
+in the table preamble for the current column from applying. The following uses
+this to centre the table's head row:



I believe we are supposed to use "center" (the intro explicitly says the lessons use US spelling)

(which I never read and I'm writing standard English most of the time, not English simplified...)

davidcarlisle · 2020-05-19T20:50:15Z

en/more-08.md

+
+As the lesson didn't cover all the available preamble-tokens I'll go on and
+explain a few others here. You might want to revisit the tables at the start of
+the lesson to get an overview of the things available. I hope the short


We don't use first person elsewhere.

I've gone for 'we' in various places, to keep the language informal

yep, I meant to add that if it is used, then use the plural we form not "I"

davidcarlisle · 2020-05-19T20:53:36Z

en/more-08.md

+horizontal space.)
+
+The `!` preamble token does something pretty similar. The difference is, that it
+_adds_ its argument to the space in the centre between two columns.


davidcarlisle · 2020-05-19T20:54:06Z

en/more-08.md

+### Vertical rules
+
+Though you _don't_ want to use vertical rules, sometimes you just have to. LaTeX
+still got you covered.


missing "has"

davidcarlisle · 2020-05-19T20:58:05Z

en/more-08.md

+Oftentimes one might think it's a good idea to merge cells vertically to get
+some desired output, but instead one should have split a cell into several
+vertically. With this small trick one can get pretty neat things done. Splitting
+cells into many vertically can be done by nesting a `tabular` environment in a
+single cell:


This doesn't read naturally at all. Perhaps

Often, rather than making a cell span multiple rows it is better to instead have a single row in which some cells are split vertically by the use of nested tabular environments.

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-19T23:49:22Z

en/lesson-08.md

-environment, in which you specify the columns by using single letter names. The
-available column types are:
+environment, in which you specify the columns by using single-letter names, so
+called preamble-tokens. The available column types are:


so called → called

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-19T23:49:48Z

en/lesson-08.md

 | `w{align}{width}` | prints the contents with a fixed `width`, silently overprinting if things get larger. You can choose the horizontal alignment using `l`, `c`, or `r`. |
 | `W{align}{width}` | like `w`, but this will issue an overfull box warning if things get too wide. |

+In addition a few other preamble-tokens are available which don't define a


Add comma after In addition

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-20T00:06:03Z

en/lesson-08.md

+package. Note however that other packages can add other types as well. This
+lesson will not cover all of these but only the essentials. So if you want to
+have an idea about what the other types are useful for after reading this
+lesson, make sure to visit the more-info page.


This sentence is a bit hard to read (for me, at least). Perhaps:

A few more useful column types, from different packages, are presented in the [further details page](en/more-08) for this lesson.

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-20T00:06:40Z

en/lesson-08.md

 ```
+<!-- {% endraw %} -->

+If a table column should contain a lot of text you will have issues to get that


should contain → contains

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-20T00:08:01Z

en/lesson-08.md

-following `\\` or another `\hline` or `\cline`).
-
+The issue is that the `l` type column typesets its contents in a single row at
+its natural width, meaning taking as much space as it takes, even if there is a


meaning taking as much space as it takes → taking as much space as it needs

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-20T00:11:44Z

en/lesson-08.md

-two columns and change the space between the latter two to `1cm` we could do so
-by using
+If you want to declare many columns of the same type you'll think this is
+cumbersome to do for each. Luckily you can have an easier life in that case by


to do for each what? Perhaps you'll think this is cumbersome when the table has many columns

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-20T00:14:11Z

en/lesson-08.md

+for professional tables you shouldn't use any of the standard lines; instead you
+should get familiar with the facilities of the `booktabs` package, which is why
+it is covered here first &ndash; for the sake of completeness I'll show you the
+standard lines later on in the more-info page.


If the idea is showing best practices, is it worth showing standard rules at all? (I can see reasons to answer “yes”; I'm just raising the question)

Another issue is the first person usage.

I thought they should be covered just because of the vertical rules. We can throw them out and stick to "don't use vertical rules, ever", but I'm not sure whether this would be the right thing to do.

People do want to make 'grids' for good reasons: I think we can but standard lines in 'more'.

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-20T00:15:06Z

en/lesson-08.md

-`*{num}{string}` | repeats `string` for `num` times in the preamble. With this you can define multiple identical columns.
-`>{decl}` | this will put `decl` before the contents of every cell in the following column (this is useful, e.g., to set a different font for this column)
-`<{decl}` | this will put `decl` after the contents of each cell in the previous column
+A word of advice prior to introducing lines; lines should be used really


lines → rules?

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-20T00:21:11Z

en/more-08.md

+
+You might find this handy, but now you want the first cell not to be affected
+because it's the table head. Here `\multicolumn` comes in handy. Remember that
+it can be used to change a single cells alignment as well? In fact, if you use


cells → cell's

PhelypeOleinik · 2020-05-20T00:24:23Z

en/more-08.md

+provided by LaTeX, those are `\hline` (equaling `\toprule`, `\midrule`, and
+`\bottomrule`) and `\cline` (which behaves like `\cmidrule`).
+
+## Customising `booktabs` rules


Customising → Customizing (besides the paragraph below also uses the US English spelling)

…ithub.io into rework-lesson-08

josephwright · 2020-05-20T08:33:38Z

en/lesson-08.md

 which is not built into the LaTeX kernel only for historic reasons. So put the
 following in your preamble and we're good to go:

+<!-- {% raw %} -->


I cut down the 'raw' parts to those that are necessary, largely as most of our examples don't need it. I've no problem with it being added back in, but just to note why it's absent at present here.

josephwright · 2020-05-20T08:36:12Z

en/lesson-08.md

-example with putting a colon in between the first two columns? How about we also
-append that colon to the first column, so that things don't look as clunky.
+`booktabs` provides four different types of lines. Each of those macros has to
+be used as the first thing in a row or following another rule, else you'll get a


'or else' rather than just 'else' is more natural to me.

josephwright · 2020-05-20T08:36:51Z

en/lesson-08.md

 ```latex
 \documentclass{article}
-\usepackage{array}
+\usepackage{array, booktabs}


I'd favour splitting over two lines: it makes life easier when commenting out packages or similar.

I only not split it into two because it was done like this elsewhere. I'm fine with splitting it into several, which is what I'd have done in my own document anyways.

Skillmon added 2 commits May 19, 2020 20:02

first try

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nested tabulars

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davidcarlisle reviewed May 19, 2020

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PhelypeOleinik reviewed May 20, 2020

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davidcarlisle and others added 3 commits May 20, 2020 08:57

hide | from table makup

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typos and English

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Merge branch 'rework-lesson-08' of github.com:learnlatex/learnlatex.g…

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…ithub.io into rework-lesson-08

josephwright approved these changes May 20, 2020

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davidcarlisle merged commit dd39be4 into master May 20, 2020

josephwright deleted the rework-lesson-08 branch June 1, 2020 10:05

Lessen the scope of lesson 08 #26

Lessen the scope of lesson 08 #26

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Skillmon commented May 19, 2020

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